216 pp. 19x12.5 cm. (7½x5"), green cloth, color pictorial jacket. First Edition.
Presentation copy inscribed and signed by Chandler on the half-title page: "For Frank Partos, with love, Ray Chandler, October 23rd, 1943." Laid in is a photograph of Chandler, inscribed by him, "Michael, Best, Ray," along with a typed letters signed by Chandler, to his London solicitor Michael Gilbert, written from La Jolla, California, undated, with interesting content, "...It is my recollection that the will you drew up for me to conform with English, Australian and American law was a full document and not at all a holograph will... The one you sent me and which I returned to you was properly witnessed here. It was this of which I should like to have the two copies, one for me and one for the principal beneficiary. What the hell is being done about the Bahama company? You know I was not given the impression, nor were you, that this was a hit-or-miss proposition but that it was a sure thing. Now, many months afterwards, I find myself without the least understanding of whether I may safely become a resident of Great Britain or not. Please pour some oil on this troubled waters..." Chandler's fourth book, featuring Philip Marlowe; only 6,000 copies produced of this first print run. Published under paper restrictions for the war effort and therefore makes this a much more difficult title to fine in collectible condition. Bruccoli, IV-1a.
Condition:
Jacket with some rubbing and wear to extremities and folds, chips to head; volume spine leaning slightly, offset to endpapers, else very good in like jacket.